Soul Markers
by riah alice drake
Summary: This is my first attempt at a multi-ship/multifandom collection. I only tagged these two shows/ships first because I know they will be showing up in this collection fairly soon :) I will be updating this from time to time so please be patient with it and me and as always all suggestions, comments and reviews are welcome and appreciated.
1. Two Kinds of People

To some, it's called a Soul Mark while others see it as a kind of soul tattoo. The image pointing a person toward their other half. Others see it more as an ever-detailing picture of a person that is too good to be true. However, regardless of belief in the soul mark or how the rest of the world sees them: a villain, hero, alien, werewolf, women, men everyone has one in the end.

The placing of the image is different for everyone forming near a shoulder blade, curving along a hip, running down or up or across the back, over the stomach (hits the growing popularity in the use of title "Soul Tattoo").

The ledged of the soul marker is that from the day it appears the details grow more intricate the closer two intendeds get to meeting their other half.

Most think it's crazy letting some "Magical" drawing point them to a total stranger yet they are the same ones that are alright with there being two kinds of people in the world as well.

The "Choicer"s and the "Crosser"s

Those that have to wait for their marks until they reach their teenage years or even adulthood are often referred to as "Choicer"s. This because it was just assumed that those were the one's fate hadn't gotten around to yet while the kinder souls proposed the idea that those without markers just meant that fate just hadn't worked out exactly how to get the intended couple together yet.

Thus, a choice has to be made by one or the other of the unmarked paring that sets them on the path to finding their other half.

Those who are lucky enough to have a soul mark appear as soon as they come of age are known as "Crosser"s seeing as the universe has already planned out how they will be finding their other half just like the star-crossed lovers of the olden age just know when they found 'the one'.


	2. KansasWolf

**_KansasWolf_**

At one point she'd thought just being a teenaged 'Choicer' was bad enough. It wasn't. Not even close.

The only real person that had truly loved cared about and protected her since she came to live in the little two-bedroom Kansas farmhouse was now gone and the only things left of her that she could really have any kind of claim to were her own memories and the little black furred scrap of a pup that had been snuggling against her chest during the services.

She'd finally decided to call him Toto thinking he needed a better name than just 'Hey, Puppy' or 'Boy' but she'd have to wait until he woke up from his nap to try it out.

"Well, it's like you keep saying about if she'd just use her head more before she'd talk about crazy things like talking Scarecrows and Cowardly Lions then he wouldn't have thought about having her committed in the first place."

Dorothy froze at the grumbled words her heart freezing and pounding all at once at the meaning behind them. So that was what Aunt Em and Uncle Henry had been bickering about when they thought Dorothy wasn't listening to them in the last weeks her dear Aunt had been bedridden.

"Come on Zeck what happened to all that courage you had before talking about how Dorothy was brave to even want to talk about what she thought happened to her while she was up in that twister?" Hunk pointed out as he and Zeck pounded away again in another attempt to fix the broken wagon they'd just dragged to a stop beside the ladder leading to the hayloft and Dorothy's current hiding place.

"That was before I heard Mr. Gale yelling at Hickory about sacking him if he said one more word about how he should be going along with Em's last wishes and keeping Dorothy out of that nuthouse when it wasn't his business in the first place." Zeck growled back

"It's not that I've lost my nerve it's just I don't want to risk losing my job did Dorothy's wild imagination. He will too with money being so tight after that last twister."

"You and me both pal. Jobs too good to let even a nice girl like her spoil it for the rest of us." Hunk agreed at last.

For once Dorothy was glad of her uncle's scratchy yells from the other side of the barn wall sending the two farm hands below her back out into the yard letting Dorothy slip from the loft with Toto now tucked under her arm as she climbed back down the ladder one-handed.

She thought it over quickly as she pulled the strap of her travel bag over her head letting the familiar weight of the slippers inside it fall against her hip as she hurried back into the relative safety of the barn not knowing if or when Hunk and Zeck would be back as she kept a firm hand on the now awake Toto not really trusting him enough just yet to come back if she let him down.

Why not? It wasn't like she had a home here anyway with Aunt Em gone. And Glinda had said when she gave it to her that Oz was in need of there savior again with Zelena back to terrorizing the people that had been so kind to her on her first wild journey in that strange other land.

Dorothy could feel the invisible shift around her the second her mind was made up. She redoubled her grip on Toto (No way she was leaving him behind) while a growing warmth seemed to wash over her back as a snowy gust of wind wrapped itself around her at the same time. But why the warm fuzzy feeling settled along the curve of her left shoulder blade into what she just knew had to be an animal paw print without even looking at it was a question for another day as closed her eyes whispering one last goodbye to her beloved Aunt before her feet hit solid earth again.

"Toto welcome to Oz." Dorothy introduced as she opened her eyes to a more than welcomed sight just a little ways ahead of her. "Let's just hope they let us stay after I've left them to Zelena's mercy or lack thereof for far longer than I should have." she sighed setting her little dog down beside her as she set off toward the warm lights of Munchkin land.

* * *

For Ruby Lucas, it wasn't until that horrible night when she learned the truth about who or rather what she really was that finally trumped her finding out she was evitablely going to be an adult 'Choicer'.

Red had tried to cry herself to sleep again but the rolling beat of the rain against the barn roof wasn't helping much. Only reminding her painfully of the scrapping of chain links against each other as they pounded against the newly discovered werewolf's sensitive hearing as a curious but comforting warmth started to spread over her right shoulder. At first, she had thought it was just Snow's hand circling along her shoulder blade as she cried into the rough fabric of the flour sack she was using as a makeshift pillow.

It wasn't until she heard slow even breathing from the only other person across from where she was curled up that the werewolf found she was wrong.

However, at the moment whatever was causing that soothing heat in her shoulder seemed to ground her against herself and her own self-hating thoughts in a way that Snow or even Granny could at the moment no matter how much they tried. It was pushing at least some of the pain of what she had done to Peter away as she clung onto it leaning into the little feather-light brushes from whatever it was as she rolled over, quietly digging in the small bag Snow had brought with them until she found the broken mirror tucked at the bottom of the pack. It had taken some maneuvering to allow her to see properly once Red had pulled down enough of her shirt to see what was happening to the smooth skin of her back.

A road? No not just a road a brick road. But what did a brick road have to do with the one that was meant for her? Peter was gone so why was fate showing her an outline of a brick road following the curve of her shoulder blade when her true love had been lying dead because of her back in the woods in the next town over?

 _Unless…._

Her broken sob must have woken Snow because not a half second later the other woman's arm were around Ruby's neck pulling her in for a comforting hug while the wolf's fresh tears soaked into the shoulder of her traveling cloak. "It was an accident Red. It was just a tragic accident." Snow whispered to her rocking them from side to side as her hands smoothed out the werewolf's long hair down her back as she cried. "He knew you didn't mean for it to happen I'm sure of it." her friend added her voice cracking at the fresh round of tears that brought from the woman she was trying to calm down.

The thing she didn't know was that Ruby wasn't crying because of Peter anymore (well not completely. She was still incredibly guilty about what had happened) no Ruby was crying for the unknown choice someone out in the world had just made that brought the thickening almost golden colored lines now hidden under both her shirt and her cloak as she curled into Snow's embrace.

How could she endanger anyone else let alone her apparent soul mate because of what she was if she couldn't even keep herself from killing the first boy she had ever liked?


	3. Sanvers

The warm sand was squishy under her feet but in her defense, she'd left her sandals back with the rest of their things down the shoreline. Maggie sighed as she hugged her arms tighter around her chest trying to rub some sense of feeling back into her arms given the chilly lateness of the scene around her yet even with the stiff chill setting into her limbs her eyes stayed locked on the fiery-haired woman still out riding the waves.

The only other soul around both to watch the sunset against the water with her and to keep Maggie company as she strolled along the calm beach trying to calm her mind from the hectic adrenaline rushes she deals with day in and day out when she's not chained to her desk with paperwork.

Well them and for some reason a curious silvery looking eagle that was currently gliding as effortlessly cross the sky as her love was across the water chasing down another wave as the sun dipped lower in the horizon.

Not that Maggie really knew if her hair really was that soft red/brown color all the time. It was just that every time she'd seen the woman she was now openly gaping at her hair would always catch the last rays of sunlight while she was twisting and balancing on her board, so her damp hair always shined like a warm red streaked beacon on Maggie's horizon.

It was her. It had to be her. Maggie was sure of it. After all this time the cop had finally managed to track down the collar she'd been hunting since she was a teenager. No way was she going to let another chance like this pass her up again as she took off jogging down the beach when the woman she loved more than her own life made a move to started back to the shoreline with her silvery winged companion flying low over her on guard while the woman paddled in while Maggie raced down the sand to meet them.

"Hey, look alive,"

Maggie jerked awake with a groan spitting out a mouth full of her own hair as she straightens up in her desk chair praying she hadn't been drooling again this time as she finger-combed her hair back out of her eyes. "Can't make detective if your sleeping on the job Sawyer." Katherine scolded good-naturedly as she offered the yawning woman a strong mug of coffee as she rolled an empty chair closer to the young officer's desk. "No matter how often you stay late to work cases."

"Geeze Babe. Can't a girl hit the beach in peace once and a while?" the young officer grumbled rubbing her tired eyes with the heal of her hand as she accepted the mug tentatively. "It's the good stuff Mags. None of that watered-down day's old crap for my best girl." The newcomer smiled against the brim of her own mug when Maggie just sniffed the cups continence hesitantly before taking a drink.

"The beach again huh?" Her on again off again lover asked curiously while her eyes lingered on the surfboard-shaped 'Choicer' mark peeking out from under the collar of Maggie's shirt noticing that all too familiar eagle logo at the top of the board glaring at her like some silvery guardian against Maggie's tanned skin. An image that Katherine Mane knew for a fact hadn't been there three days before as she kept massaging her hands against Maggie's shoulders tenderly working out the stiff muscles from the times Maggie had fallen asleep at her desk for what she knew was close to the twentieth time in less than a week.

Maggie only nodded again stifling another yawn behind her fist as she reached out for her coffee again. It seemed that she hadn't noticed the mark yet. "Not a lot of beaches here in Gotham." Katherine promoted sadly but forced her voice into something a little more teasing as she kept talking. "Well, maybe you can detect one on your way to the National City precinct and finally find the love of your life getting a sunburn or something."

The comment puzzled the young cop for several long moments while the warmth of her coffee continued to wake up her still sleep-addled brain.

"Took you long enough Mags." Katherine laughed when Maggie's eyes widened in surprised shock "Saved Gordian the trip so I could see your reaction myself." She admitted pulling the badge from her jacket pocket and holding it up for the other woman's inspection.

"Congratulations Detective Sawyer."

* * *

Her head was still pounding in a hangover and the painfully bright florescent lights over her head weren't helping anything. The bars against her back cooled some of the tension in the rest of her body but she still wished she was back at the bar drinking her feelings away.

The great Alex Danvers had hit rock bottom again in her young life. It wasn't her fault she hadn't known what to do with her life since she was fourteen. She loves Kara so much. She was her sister but right now, Alex groaned under her breath running her fingers over the official badge looking mark that somehow ground her in a way her sister would never really be able to do.

The mark that no matter how wild she got it prove to the hungover woman sulking in the drunk tank again that she would one day find love, so she could stop feeling compelled into going out night after night to drink her life away again as soon as the guards let her out. Then again given the cop shaped badge that had now replaced the light between the motorcycle's handlebars in the 'Crosser' Mark covering her pulse point maybe she'd find her soulmate during her next run-in with the law.

A girl could only hope, right?

"If you really want a second chance Alexandra then straighten up and stop feeling sorry for yourself already." A voice not unlike her mothers or possible her long-dead fathers whispered in her ear. "While I am flattered that you think I could in any way be in the same category as your father you should be thinking of your own future and not on your past," the voice ordered from behind her.

The partier shook her head fighting down the groan when the move only made the pounding in her skull worse as she pivoted around to glare blurrily at the dark-skinned man sitting behind her on the other side of the bars. "I knew your father Alex, and do you really think he would approve of his genius daughter drinking her life away?" the man questioned his eyes staring unblinkingly into hers. "She can't get drunk so no." Alex slurred not caring if it turned out that she was talking to herself with all the liquor she had the night before.

"I'm not talking about Kara I am referring to you, Alexandra." The man growled "Jerimiah had such high hopes for you. A mind like yours, talents like yours and here you are pickled in liquor and wallowing in sadness just because you are not like everyone else?" he prompted.

"What talents I'm just a surfer."

"A surfer who is also a bio-engineer with an MD and a Ph.D. when she's not drinking and partying her life away. Jeremiah would be proud of you for that." The guy corrected making Alex uneasy at just how he could possibly know that even when she heard the soft almost fatherly prideful tone he'd used. Then again, she chocked it all up to the booze still in her system.

"Dad is gone so what's the point? Mom only calls when she's worried about Kara and I don't have a soul mate to stay sober for so yeah I drink and I party." Alex hissed pressing her face into the natural looking faced man still sitting on the floor across from her on the other side of the drunk tank. The guy was really pushing her buttons and even when she noticed that he was taller than her Alex still figured she could take him in a fight.

"My name is Hank and I assure you Alex you can't 'take me in a fight' even when you are sober. However, given time you might be able to after your finished with your training." He smiled chuckling humorously at the dumbstruck look on the young woman's face as he stood up to leave. "If you're willing to sober up and take a chance then you might be able to find the owner of that badge on your wrist in some other way than a drunken party girl and her arresting officer and finally become the woman your father always knew you could be," Hank commented holding out a little leather wallet looking object toward her.

Alex took the wallet looking thing tentatively flipping it open curiously. "Just one question," Alex answered her still hazy eyes looking from the silvery shield-like crest in her hands and back at the guy. "What's an eagle got to do with me getting to meet a detective?"


	4. Avalance

Sara had been puzzling over her mark since the day she'd gotten it. "I mean what kind of hint is that for a soulmate?" she grumbles to her sister gesturing to the deep blue colored image that expanded and contracted on ever hard breath she takes.

"Maybe you'll end up with Father Time." That had earned a hard heel kick to her stomach once Sara had managed to twist out of her older sister's grip with a grunted: "I'm serious Laur."

It takes her sister longer than normal to bounce back from the hit as her watery eyes meet Sara's as she offer's her a hand up. "Oh, come on Sar you've been complaining about this since we were kids." Laurel sighed when she'd gotten her breath back taking the out starched hand gratefully.

Sara smiled in triumph at the show of surrender. That was a mistake when the older Lance swung out taking out her younger sibling's legs. "So, your Crosser mark is a clock, I still haven't gotten my own mark yet thank you." She reminded her bitterly.

"It's an opened pocket watch." Sara corrected angrily both at being taken in by such an obvious trick and for her sister not getting the image being discussed right. "If you're going to insult it do it properly." The blonde grunted panting hard up at the ceiling.

"I'm not insulting it or you." Laurel defended pushing herself up onto her forearms to look at her sister. "Um 'Maybe you'll end up with Father Time?' ring any bells." Sara scoffed while her companion just rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."

Sara preened at the comment no matter how sarcastic the tone behind it was. "Impossible to defeat you mean." She boasted as the pair finally called their little sparring session to an end.

"Did you not see me take you out not once but twice just now?" her sister pointed out tossing Sara's water bottle at her harder then need be.

"But I still came back for more." Sara corrected pouring out the remained of her water over the back of her neck.

The loud whine of an alarm stalled anymore talk on the timepiece etched into the shorter woman's ribs.

"Suit up." Oliver growled out already dropping down from the very top of the salmon ladder with practiced skill. "The city needs us."

* * *

It had been a part of her for as long as she could remember. That curious little black outlined bird that seemed to be purchased over her ribs.

When she was little Ava had thought it had been a raven but now she's not so sure.

It's too small for a raven. A robin maybe? Or a sparrow?

Ava shook her head at her own thoughts staring out at the night sky outside her apartment's windows. "Knowing what it is won't explain why it changed from black to white." She growled to herself over the rim of her coffee mug.

That little trick had been a surprise.

Her little bird had been the color of the night all dark and mysterious apart from a seemingly amused spark in the mark's eyes. Until one night around 2012 or possibly more into early 2013 when Ava had been toweling herself dry from a shower only to find an alien white feathered thing sitting where her strong little raven but not a raven should have been.

Ava had eventually gotten used to the new colored rib guarder until the sneaky little thing went and changed colors on her yet again back to its original night sky darkness.

"Pick one, already will you?" the newly instated time agent had groaned when after a few celebratory shots with a new guy who kept telling everyone who gave him more drinks that his name was Garry the tipsy new time agent had pulled up her shirt to show off the strange little raven not raven bird only to be told that it was now a snowy bird not a black night one.

"Okay, I pick…this one." Garry had slurred sloshing the drink he'd just been handed toward her thinking she'd been growling at him.

"Not you my birdy." Ava answered, "She keeps changing on me and it's making my head hurt." She admitted still nursing her last shot sulkily.

"Bad canary birdy." Garry laughed as Ava dropped her shirt to cover it back up again. She didn't like anyone but her looking at her little songbird for too long especially if that anyone was a man.

"Canary bird?" Ava asked thinking she'd better start changing her drinks over to water soon if she wanted to keep her wits about her for the first day on the job in the morning.

"Hu hu." Garry hiccupped stealing the rest of the pretzel snacks from the bowl in front the confused blonde that come morning would be his boss. "You've got yourself a little canary bird under your shirt." The more than a little tipsy intern giggled.

"Shut up Garry." Ava ordered tossing back a shot of water then signaling for another not realizing that once again the bird had changed colors on her under the cover of her rumpled shirt going back permanently to its creamy white coloring but still keeping a small patch of black around its little eyes like a bandits mask.


	5. Clexa

It had taken hours of hunting in the pitiful excuse of the Arcs records collection for the blonde to figure out just what the fates had decided to paint across her breast bone since the day she was born. She was six after all she deserved to know.

"These small bear like creatures originally lived in densely wooded areas but have adapted to live in mountains and even cities if need be." The young blonde read aloud in a low whisper. "Most recognizable due to the thick black colored fur around the eyes like a bandit mask the raccoon also have extremely sensitive and nimble front paws that some use to open jars or turn door knobs when the case calls for it."

"A very desirable trait if you ask me."

Clarke starts in surprise at the playful voice. The book in her lap falling onto the floor as she sits up to see her father smiling at her from the hallway. "That just means that your intended will be very good with his hands. A talent that is short supply around here." The older man sighed regretfully as he sat down on the end of his daughter's bed handing her the fallen book back. "And you should be in bed princess." He reminded her

"I am in bed." Clarke answered crossing her legs over her father knee just to exaggerate the point as she stretched out as far as she could on the small cot. Jake Griffin chuckled at that ruffling his daughter's hair as he did so. "But how can I meet a raccoon when they live on the ground and I'm all the way up here in the sky?" the blonde pressed curiously

"I don't know Clarkie." Her father sighed threading his fingers in her long sunshine colored locks. "But one thing I do know. He'd better treat my little princess proper or he'll have me to answer to."

Clarke nodded curling up with her head pillowed against her father's leg as he covered her back up in her blanket reading her more about the funny little masked bear that would one day leader her to her Prince Charming. The one thing the little girl decided before she let herself fall asleep was that when he got here the boy better have pretty green eyes and hair to match the coco colored tree branches like the images of the forests her raccoon lives in or she's trading him in for someone else. Like a leader of some big group of people like her Daddy was.

* * *

Lexa could feel Costia tracing her fingers along her abdomen outlining the thing claiming her as its own that had been with the resting night blood since the day she joined the world.

"A forest cat made of stares." Her lover pronounced knowing full well her Heda wasn't asleep.

"Well, you are as graceful as one and just as deadly." The young commander admitted rolling over to face the woman sharing her bed. "and you are also the light of my life." The last was admitted in a whisper as Lexa leaned into the warmth when her lover tenderly caressed her cheek before leaning in closer brushing their lips together in a ghost of a kiss.

"Just promise me that you let this grain colored cat from the stars keep you safe when I am no longer able." Costia insisted propping herself up onto her elbow to meet her Heda's eyes. "Promise me Lexa."

"I promise." The jade eyed commander vowed tugging her lover back into her arms. Needing her closer. "But until I find this star eyed sky cat you can continue to protect me." She smiled cuddling up against Costia's warm body listening to her heartbeat against her ear.

The young warrior had just been on the cusp of sleep when the warm body beside her was suddenly replaced by empty furs. "Titus stopped by seems the convoy will be leaving before sunrise instead." Costia explained when she looked over to see Lexa's pouting expression from under the security of their bed furs.

"That rout cuts into the Ice Nation territory." Lexa remembered pulling the bed furs with her as she got up to help her lover dress. "I'd much prefer if you crossed during the day when its less of the chance of you being taken."

Costia chuckled at that pressing a kiss against her lover's forehead "I will be fine my Heda." The warrior promised, "I am simply acting as an added guard for supply transport I will be back before you know it."

As Heda Lexa knew she was acting selfishly wanting to keep one of her best fighters from doing what she was trained for just because she was scared. "Remember what I said Lex." Her love whispered to her threading her fingers in the distracted leader's hair "Until I return to you or my fight comes to an end that sky cat is your protector."

"And like I told you." Lexa countered pulling her lover back in for one last tight embrace "I can't find the cat, so I still want you."

Costia left the pouting Heda with a lingering kiss and a snarky "When you find her break her heart at last once for me then heal it back up again with that cute soft side you try so hard to hide."

A comment that Lexa only replied with "Hedas are not cute we're warriors." Echoing Costia's words in a low whisper when her retreating lover only answered with a chuckling "May we meet again." in their native tongue.


End file.
